2024+DEJA+VU+1976_2000

Years of Déjà Vu: 1976-2000

• Post-Nixon Era (1976-2000): A period marked by social, political, and economic challenges.

• The author reflects on this era as a time he wishes to forget, filled with déjà vu.

• The end of the Vietnam War in 1973 and Nixon's resignation in 1974 left a void and uncertainty in America.

• The author contrasts his experience with that of Vietnam veterans, acknowledging his luck in avoiding that conflict.

• He emphasizes that his future conflicts were by choice, driven by philosophical reasons, unlike the Vietnam War.

• Post-Vietnam America: Depicted as a rudderless ship, scarred and questioning its leadership due to Watergate.

• Gerald Ford's presidency was seen as a period of stumbling until the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Jimmy Carter's Presidency

• Carter's informality: Contrasted with the Nixon-Ford administrations, Carter was laid-back, often seen in jeans and work boots.

• Symbolic gestures: Carter walked to his inauguration and carried his own luggage, aiming to connect with the American people.

• These actions were orchestrated to show Carter as an everyman, distinct from Nixon.

• Carter's credentials: Despite his folksy image, Carter was a nuclear physics graduate from the Naval Academy.

"Attack of the Commie Killer Rabbit"

• The incident: While fishing in a rowboat, Carter was approached by a swimming rabbit.

• Sarcasm alert: The episode was jokingly portrayed as Cold War intrigue, with the rabbit possibly being a KGB agent or a weapon.

• Carter used a boat paddle to fend off the rabbit.

• Public reaction: Americans were largely unconvinced of the rabbit's malevolence and were either embarrassed or disgusted.

• Soviet propaganda: The Soviets used the incident to mock Carter.

Carter's Public Persona vs. Political Reality

• Public perception: Despite the rabbit incident, Carter was generally liked by the American people.

• Congressional view: Veteran members of Congress saw Carter as a novice who relied too much on his Georgia advisors.

• Micro-management: Carter had a habit of getting caught up in details, hindering his ability to govern effectively.

• Criticism: Carter was described as "a leaf man" who couldn't see the forest for the trees.

The Economy Under Carter

• Inherited problems: Carter inherited a weakening economy from Ford, marked by rising inflation.

• Oil crisis: America's dependence on Middle Eastern oil made the economy vulnerable to OPEC's pricing.

• Inflation: High inflation rates led to a loss of purchasing power and layoffs in major industries.

• Taxpayer revolt: Inflation pushed middle-class Americans into higher tax brackets, leading to discontent.

• Federal deficit: Due to a refusal to adjust social programs for inflation, the federal deficit exploded to $60 billion$ by 1980.

• Declining living standards: By the end of Carter's presidency, Americans faced a decline in their standard of living for the first time since WWII.

American Demographics

• Immigration: Immigration continued, with a majority originating from Latin America and Asia.

• Illegal immigration: Approximately 12 million immigrants were in the country illegally by the 1980s.

Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers

• Exploitation: Mexican migrant workers faced exploitation in the agricultural sector.

• Organization: Cesar Chavez organized the United Farm Workers Organization in 1970.

• Boycotts: Chavez called for public boycotts on farm produce to pressure corporate farmers.

• Success: Economic pressure forced farmers to the bargaining table, improving conditions for migrant workers.

• Legacy: Chavez remains an icon for Hispanic Americans and migrant laborers.

Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement

• Stonewall Inn: The 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn sparked riots and the gay rights movement.

• "Coming out": Gays and lesbians began to protest for an end to discrimination.

• Government changes: The federal government dropped its classification of homosexuality as a mental illness.

• Limited gains: Progress was slow due to conflict with traditional American Christian values.

Native Americans

• Social Oscillation: History of shifting policies from assimilation to reorganization.

• American Indian Movement (AIM): Founded in 1968 by Russell Means and Dennis Banks.

• Radical actions: AIM seized Alcatraz Island (1969) and Wounded Knee (1973) to draw attention to Native American issues.

• Indian Self-Determination Act (1975): Granted reservations greater autonomy.

• Tribal Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978: Helped establish higher education institutions on reservations.

The Environment

• Earth Day: First observance in 1970, raising awareness about environmental threats.

• Clean Air Act and EPA: Congress passed the Clean Air Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.

• Love Canal: The toxic waste site prompted the Clean Water Act and the creation of a Superfund in 1980.

Human Rights

• Carter's pledge: Carter vowed to address global human rights violations.

• Andrew Young: Appointed as the US ambassador to the UN.

• Actions taken: Condemned apartheid governments and China's repression of Tibet.

• Latin America: Cut off US foreign aid to Argentina and Chile due to repressive military dictatorships.

• Mariel Boatlift: Carter's deal with Castro led to the emigration of Cuban criminals to the US, causing problems and a cocaine infestation in Miami.

Jimmy Carter and Foreign Policy

The Panama Canal

• Carter's morality: Carter wanted his foreign policy to be guided by morality.

• 1978 Panama Canal Treaty: Carter signed the treaty, giving the canal to the Panamanians, finalized in 2000.

• Strategic concerns: Critics worried about surrendering a strategic position to an unstable country.

The Middle East

• Camp David Accords (1978): Carter mediated a peace settlement between Egypt (Anwar Sadat) and Israel (Menachem Begin).

• Historical significance: Egypt became the first Arab nation to recognize Israel.

• Territorial exchange: Israel withdrew troops from Egypt's Sinai territory.

• Opposition: The PLO and the Arab world opposed the treaty.

• Assassination: Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by the PLO in response to the Camp David Accords.

The Cold War

• Détente policy: Carter continued the Nixon-Ford policy of détente with China and the Soviet Union.

• Diplomatic Reciprocity Agreement (1978): The US formally recognized Red China, causing concern in Taiwan.

• SALT II Treaty: Carter and Brezhnev concluded a new Strategic Arms Limitations Talks Treaty, but the Republican-controlled Senate refused to ratify it due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

• Soviet invasion: Afghanistan became the USSR’s Vietnam.

• US support: The CIA aided the mujahedin, anti-Soviet freedom fighters.

• US-USSR relations: The invasion strained relations, with the US fearing increased Soviet influence in the Persian Gulf.

• Carter's response: Placed an embargo on US grain exports and boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

• Shift in policy: Carter switched from arms reduction to an arms buildup.

The Iranian Hostage Crisis

• Root cause: Hatred for the US stemming from the 1954 CIA-backed coup that installed the Shah.

• Ayatollah Khomeini: Issued a fatwah, calling for jihad against the Shah and American supporters in 1979.

• Overthrow of the shah: Violent overthrow of the Shah’s government.

• Embassy seizure: Iranian militants seized the US embassy in Teheran in November 1979, holding over 50 US diplomatic personnel hostage for 444 days.

• Failed rescue mission: Carter authorized a rescue mission in April 1980, but it failed due to sandstorms, leading to a propaganda victory for Iran and further damaging Carter's reputation and chances of re-election.

• Legacy: The crisis remains a priority in modern US foreign policy and highlights the continuous hatred for the U.S from Iran.

The Carter Legacy

• Enigma: Carter is seen as an enigma with a colorful family.

• Post-presidency: Carter has been involved in global humanitarian activities.

• Public perception: Many Americans still remember the hostage crisis and killer rabbit attack.

• Election of 1980: Americans sought an alternative, leading to the election of Ronald Reagan.

The Reagan Years 1980-1988

Factors Leading to Reagan's Election

The Taxpayer's Revolt

• Movement: Targeted perceived Democratic overspending on social programs.

• Proposition 13: California voters cut property taxes in 1978.

• Economic theory: Conservatives argued tax cuts would stimulate economic growth.

• Kemp-Roth legislation: Basis of Reagan's tax cut program.

The Moral Revival

• Reaction: A backlash against the excesses of the 1960s.

• Televangelists: Figures like Oral Roberts and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker gained large followings.

• Political activism: Religious groups, like Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, financed campaigns to unseat liberal members of Congress.

• Attacks on "secular humanism": Religious fundamentalists opposed "godless creed."

• Key issues: Opposition to the removal of prayer from public schools (Engel v Vitale, 1962) and the legalization of abortion (Roe v Wade, 1973).

• Right to Life Movement: Coalition of Catholics and Protestants who believed life begins at conception.

Affirmative Action and Reverse Discrimination

• Affirmative action: LBJ's policy to remove barriers based on race, economics, ethnicity and gender in hiring and college admission by setting minority quotas.

• Reverse discrimination: Whites claimed to be victims of reverse discrimination.

• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978): The Supreme court Ruled that college admissions could not be based on race alone.

• Compromised laws: Affirmative Action laws were modified to allow quotas to exert influence in college admissions into the 21st Century.

The Reagan Revolution

• Reaganomics: Based on Andrew Mellon’s 1920s supply-side economics.

• Significant tax cuts: Targeted the wealthiest Americans (28% total cut by 1988).

• Laissez-faire: Massive deregulation of American businesses and financial institutions.

• Trickle-down theory: Prosperity would trickle down from the wealthy to other levels of society.

Key Components of Reaganomics

Tax Reduction

• 100 Days character: Swift passage of tax cut legislation through Congress.

• Corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, gift and inheritance taxes all targeted businesses and upper income taxpayers.

• Middle class income tax cut of 25% in personal income taxes over a three year period.

• Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs): Small investors could defer up to $2,000.00 tax free.</p></li></ul><h6 id="3bbddf56-4470-45b8-aaef-83981e193716" data-toc-id="3bbddf56-4470-45b8-aaef-83981e193716" collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">Cuts in Federal Government Spending</h6><ul><li><p>Keynesian economic theory (adopted by FDR during the Great Depression) was cut. It calls for increased government spending to boost consumer income and demand. The problem occurs when the government doesn’t have enough money to spend, so it simply prints more, resulting in both inflation and national debt. Spending money you don’t really have is called deficit spending.</p></li><li><p>Conservative Southern Democrats</p></li><li><p>Boll weevils: Conservative Southern Democrats Supported Reagan to cut$40 billion$in government spending for domestic programs.</p></li><li><p>Reagan: Promised not to touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.</p></li><li><p>$40 billion$cut: offset by an increase in Defense spending.</p></li></ul><h6 id="4e8d8a1c-bfd3-479f-b487-97bb8935796d" data-toc-id="4e8d8a1c-bfd3-479f-b487-97bb8935796d" collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">Deregulation</h6><ul><li><p>Laissez faire (Deregulation) was implemented.</p></li><li><p>Angry at cuts to the FAA, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike.</p></li><li><p>Reagan, fired them and Decertified their contract with the government.</p></li><li><p>Anti-union policies: Resulted in decreasing union membership, which dropped from over 30$4$. Reagan’s initial primary economic target was the Carter inflation rate, and the recession, coupled with falling oil prices acted to reduce the double-digit inflation to a microscopic 4$200 billion$to$300 billion$.</p></li><li><p>New mentality regarding government spending: Diversion from the mentality of "what new programs can the government provide for the citizens?” to “heck we can’t afford to create anything new (especially attempts at universal health care), all we can do is look for more places to cut.”</p></li><li><p>Reagan's increase in military spending resulted in a federal deficit topping$200 billion$per year and a national debt which tripled over the course of his presidency from$900 billion$to over$2.7 trillion$.</p></li><li><p>The US trade deficit, bolstered by the increase of foreign-made consumer luxury goods (thanks a lot, Yuppies) reached$150 billion$per year; the cumulative amount of the entire trade imbalance ($1 trillion$ during the 1980s contributed to an increase in foreign ownership of American real estate and industry.

• For the first time since WWI the United States was a debtor nation.

Congress pass the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act in 1985, which called for across the board spending cuts especially in the military in order to slow down the spiraling budget deficit. From 1986 to 1988 the legislation succeeded in reducing the budget by $66 billion$.

Reagan’s Foreign Policy

• Reagan was Determined to deploy the “tip of the sword” of American will: TR-influenced Big Stick determination to deploy the “tip of the sword” of American will but was smart enough to know that many times it might provide the necessary credibility for diplomacy

Central America

• JFK’s Alliance for Progress and the old Taft policy of Dollar Diplomacy: resulted in the rise of several military dictators throughout Latin America, often sardonically referred to as “Banana Republics.”

• The United States had put up with these monsters (most were) because they took great measures to keep communism out of Latin America (the entire reason for the Alliance for Progress in the first place). However these leaders could stamp not out the Kennan philosophy of poverty in the Third Word and the appeal of communism, so throughout Reagan’s presidency the United States was occupied putting out Latin American brush fires to maintain the non-communist status quo.

• $CIA$ Sponsor pro-democracy Nicaraguan guerillas known as Contras

• 1985 Boland Amendment: prohibited further aid to the Contras.

• $5 million$ El Salvador: US allocated to a coalition of pro-US guerillas with the intent of overthrowing the Marxist government.

• Pro-Marxist rebels staged a coup: Overthrowing the government of Grenada. In response, President Reagan ordered a joint-forces coalition to stage a flexible-strike invasion. Code named Urgent Fury, to prevent the establishment of a communist-base in the Lower Antilles.

• 1980 Iran and Iraq: Bitter border war erupted, a radical Muslim group in seized several American media personnel taken as taken as ransom.

Iran-Contra Affair

• Secret Scheme in which US would sell weapons to the Iranian government: In return for their help in obtaining the release of the American newsmen.

• 1986 Illegal use: Use the proceeds from the arms sales to further fund the Contras in Nicaragua.

• Congressional power: Violated both the Boland Amendment and the Congressional “power of the purse.”

• Oliver North and John Poindexter admitted complicity, Reagan appeared an uninformed, confused president.

The Middle East

• 1967 Israel had invaded and occupied the West Bank territory.

• 1982 Reagan Sent US Marines to the Lebanese capital city of Beirut as a peacekeeping force. Also agreed to help sponsor an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon to rid the Lebanon/Israeli border of Arab terrorist groups.

• 1983 Arab terrorist struck: First at the US Embassy, killing 63 Americans, and later at the Marine barracks, killing 241 marines.

• 1984 Reagan pulled all US military personnel out of Lebanon.

• 1988 Secretary of State George Schultz gains a settlement with Palestinian Liberation Organization in which arafat recognised the state of Israel in exchange for territories.

The Cold War: Beginning of the End

• “The Evil Empire”: Reagan despised the soviets and returned to Johns Foster Dulles policies.

• George Marshall plan: Reagan used it as a guide

• Reagan Administration spent billions on new weaponry

• The Navy: Increased from 450 to 600 warships

Reagan ordered increased research and spending on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Was for a research in space to launch missile at other enemy space craft. The site of this defense initiation was the idea that Soviet Union would not be able to keep abreast to competition causing it to destroy itself from with in with such excessive government spending to compete from the war.

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev reform:

• 1987, INF Agreement reached. Missiles removed Gorbachev And Reagan.

• 1988 All Soviet troops removed from Afghanistan

• 1989: Berlin wall destroyed

The Collapse of Soviet Union

• Mikhail Gorbachev Announces That the Government Soviet Could not afford other communists government and had to leave (Iron Wall Curtain)

• 1989 Chinese Tiananmen square pro democracy movement.

• Chinese Tiananmen square pro democracy movement was crushed by the government.

• Lech Wales

• Soviet fell one by one

START Treaties

• 1991 Bush and Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) I Treaty, which reduced the number of warheads to fewer than 10,000 for each side.

• 1992 Bush and Yeltsin signed the START II Treaty which dropped the limit to 3,000 warheads each.

Problems During the Bush Administration

• Panama: Invaded Panama in late 1989 which was a banana republic and arrested Noriega, and stayed until a new government could be elected.

• Persian gulf: august 1990. Desert Storm, lead by general Schwarzkopf- Coalition formed to remove Iraqi out of Kuwait, operation to remove from Sadaam. 100 hour war from the ground. Didn’t remove for power.

• Bush approval rating lowered at the end because didn’t kill Muslim leader out of power because of the supporting of the Israil.

George Bush’s America

• George Bush’s Vice president: Was sparkling and secured a desire for a second term, but domestic problems dogged him throughout his administration

• Clarence Thomas: Nominated to the Supreme court and got confirmed nonetheless even when he have been guilty of sexual harassment.

• Savings and loan Bailout: Sponsorship of banks that had failed in investments, because of this action Americans were Appalled at the bailout- and lost $250 Billion$.

George Bush the Elder

• Bush’s first problem erupted with his nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Thomas, an African American, was a Reagan conservative which rubbed mainstream African Americans the wrong way. In addition, former legal secretary Anita Hill alleged that Thomas had been guilty of sexual harassment, an issue which millions of American women believed. The Senate nonetheless confirmed Thomas, but the controversy remained.

• Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990: in hiring, transportation, and public accommodations, including schools